Oct. 17, 2017
07:26 am JST

Oct. 17, 2017
07:31 am JST

How does half the country not want him to keep a job yet he wins by a landslide?

Gerrymandered constituencies, massive voter disparity in rural areas, enormous 'subsidies' to voters in rural areas, near total support for the LDP in the corporate media, total support of the LDP by corporate Japan, support for the LDP from the US State Department, fractured opposition - the list goes on and on. 70 years as a virtual one-party state has given the LDP more than enough experience of how to manage 'democracy' in this country.

Oct. 17, 2017
07:57 am JST

Oct. 17, 2017
07:59 am JST

Oct. 17, 2017
08:14 am JST

Abe is not popular, but his party is trusted by enough voters to win big if only because the new parties are untested and have not generated excitement," said

This is so screwed...Majority of voters dont like Abe but will vote for LDP because new parties are " untested"? How the heck are they supposed to get tested if you dont give them a chance? Truly beyond help, this place...lets all enjoy giving more of our tax money to Jiminto so they can pass it onto their cronies and themselves while laughing behind the lemmings back since they are almost guaranteed to be re elected again next time. ...wtf.

Oct. 17, 2017
08:16 am JST

Nothing shows strong leadership more than peeking out of lace curtains in the back seat of a car being chauffeur driven back to his mums house. Yet for all his mum admonishing he still will never be half the man her dad was.

Oct. 17, 2017
08:34 am JST

Oct. 17, 2017
08:37 am JST

I don't want Japan to turn into a marionette-doll governed solely by Abe!:( Democratic political diversity has a high chance of perishing, and Japan is practically a one-party state!

This country need to give someone other than hawkish Abe the opportunity to at least try to improve Japan's situation. With Abe in for another 4 years is simply destructive for Japan!:( He fools this country from top to toe! And makes Japan more nationalistic and foreign-hostile:(!

Oct. 17, 2017
09:33 am JST

Oct. 17, 2017
09:43 am JST

if you listen to abe's stump speech, he mentions north korea about 20 times in a ten minute speech. that's all he's harping on, and a defensive country listens. koike needs to stop mentioning zero hay fever and have a more reassuring speech about being prepared for a military strike. hate to say it but abe is playing all the right cards right now and has that nutter little rocket man to thank.

Oct. 17, 2017
09:52 am JST

Oct. 17, 2017
09:55 am JST

So, according to this article, if Koike had decided to run she would have taken a lot of votes away from Abe and the Party of Hope would have become the official opposition? If that is the case then the people voting for her aren't voting for a politician but a savior! As I said in another post, this is more a cult of personality, much like that of Toru Hashimoto in Osaka. Regardless, it is sad news when only 37% of the people support the leader but his party will win a resounding victory and then be able to claim that he has a mandate to change everything that most people hold dear.

Oct. 17, 2017
10:43 am JST

@cucashopboy My sympathy to all the victims. What can they do? Those politicians are either selected by party, or volunteers to be party leaders. Japanese people elect their leaders not based on their performances, but their promises. The Japanese system is a joke. It only offers a very limited candidates for people to choose. No one cares the qualities they offer to the people. Japanese people have the right to vote, but they don't have the right to choose. That is the value and beauty of Japan.

Oct. 17, 2017
11:23 am JST

Oct. 17, 2017
11:26 am JST

The DPJ were undermined by the beauracracts and media, both controlled by grumpy old men adverse to a monicom of change. Pm Kan has been held up as a good leader globally but derided in Japan. Opposition to the LDP results in a good quashing.

Oct. 17, 2017
11:30 am JST

Oct. 17, 2017
01:16 pm JST

PM Abe is the most popular Japanese leader and is liked internationally . His coalition will surely secure a big victory in the coming election for the lower house . There is no distaste for him among the Japanese people , only media is highlighting it to give a negative twist and lower his image the masses due to selfish reasons.

Oct. 17, 2017
01:36 pm JST

Could it be that most people don’t feel represented by the current parties, and feel like every single one of them is a bunch of corrupt politicians who just care about themselves and don't give a damn about anything else?

Just saying, because basically all politicians in Japan are old dinosaurs who do not represent at all the average Japanese. Not to mention that the opposition seems at time worse, especially when you have the supposedly left leaning Minshinto unifying with the right wing Kibou to To, as they said, "Just to win".

Also, things that really matter to people, like the unsustainable pension system, the massive debt and the fact that the economy is still in the sink even after letting the bank of japan run wild and devaluate the Yen, and rarely talked about, and these damn elections focus on problems some "key demographics" care about, like Nuclear Power and Free education.

Oct. 17, 2017
01:45 pm JST

What this country needs is a direct election for PM. Enough of this party politics deciding who runs the party, thus the national government.

The people as a whole have ZERO say in electing their PM and THAT is a huge problem today! It is inconceivable that an electorate that distrusts or dislikes their current PM will be given the chance to continue ruling. But then this IS Japan.

Oct. 17, 2017
02:39 pm JST

What this country needs is a direct election for PM

The current system works OK, I think. If only 37% of the people want Abe as PM he ought to lose his seat in his constituency. But of course he won't lose because (a) he is the son of the last guy to be their MP and (b) the people there will be hoping that some of his crooked dealings benefit them.

Oct. 17, 2017
03:21 pm JST

Oct. 17, 2017
03:57 pm JST

Smith is right.....im over the politics in Japan, its hopeless...people are just too passive and averse to any radical change in their political space here. Or in fact to pretty much any proper change in almost any walk of life...next time someone complains to me about Abe scandals or anything else ,ll just tell them to gaman and repeat shouganai ad nausea to themselves. You get the leadership you deserve. Useless.

Oct. 17, 2017
04:00 pm JST

Japan has the biggest population of sheepeople anywhere in the World. Abe and his clowns have achieved nothing for Japan and yet they will be voted back in? Abe will bring US nuclear weapons to Japanese soil under the NK threat.

Oct. 17, 2017
08:43 pm JST

Works fine in the UK, Canada, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Spain etc. etc.Most folk seem quite content with it. And if it ain’t broke....

But what do all those countries have that Japan doesn't? THAT is the problem. Hence my comment. It's broke because there is only ONE party that has, for nearly 8 DECADES power, and controls the system.

If Japan had a truly two or three party system I would NOT have made the comment I did.

The current system works OK, I think. If only 37% of the people want Abe as PM he ought to lose his seat in his constituency.

It doesnt matter if only 37% want Abe, it's his own district that elects him and as head of the LDP he is automatically reelected at the president of the LDP and thus PM